Our student algebra seminars give us a chance to learn about what everyone else is doing, bounce ideas off each other, and get inspiration from our peers. They also are an opportunity to practice mathematical communication in front of a friendly audience. Students are welcome to speak about a specific aspect of their research, something they are learning in preparation for their research, or something they think other audience members would be interested in. This is also a venue where people can practice for upcoming conference talks and get feedback.
Our student algebra seminars are aimed at research students in algebra, and give a chance for us to learn from each other about various topics. They also provide a relaxed environment to practice giving talks,
We will abide by the IFS rules:
Any question/additional explanation from the audience is allowed.
Ego out the window.
Examples, examples, examples.
Jacques du Plooy, MSc candidate UNSW (primary supervisor Alex Sherman)
Zach Leong, Honours UNSW (2024, supervisor Anna Romanov)
The group meetings take place every Thursday from 1-3pm.
Talks will take place in the fourth floor seminar room H13-4082.
Notes will be posted on this website following each talk.
Before the seminar, we'll all have lunch together in the tea room. You are welcome to bring your lunch, or buy a lunch and meet us there. We will meet at roughly 1pm.
Term 2 2026
9-7-2026: Jacques du Plooy - Topological Quantum Field Theories
16-7-2026: Zach Leong - Equivariant Cohomology
23-7-2026: Alex Reddel - Étale Cohomology (notes)
6-8-2026: Leyao Zha - Homotopy Theory (notes)
20-8-2026: Victor Zhang - Diagrammatic Lusztig-Vogan Categories
3-9-2026: Nathan Todd - A proof of Riemann-Roch for Smooth Projective Curves
17-9-2026: Jacques du Plooy - Gabriel's Theorem (notes)
15-10-2026: Dominic Matan - An Introduction to Curves (notes)
Derived categories learning series:
29-10-2026: Balazs Elek - Why derived categories? (notes)
Books
Dimca - Sheaves in Topology
Kashiwara, Schapira - Sheaves on Manifolds
Achar - Perverse Sheaves
Hokka, Takiuchi, Tanisaki - D-modules, Perverse Sheaves and Representation Theory
Notes
Williamson - An Illustrated Guide to Perverse Sheaves
Thomas - Derived Categories for the working mathematician
de Cataldo & Migliorini - The Decomposition Theorem, Perverse Sheaves and the Topology of Algebraic Maps
Caldararu - Derived Categories of Sheaves: a skimming
There are several ongoing seminars in Sydney/Australia appropriate for PhD students in algebra. Here are links to their pages.
Seminars Anna's students should attend:
UNSW Pure Maths Seminar (Tuesdays 12pm during term weeks)
UNSW algebra seminar - contact Alex Sherman to be added to mailing list
Additional relevant seminars:
Informal Friday Seminar (USyd)
USyd algebra seminar (USyd)
SMRI seminar (USyd)
Australian Category Seminar (Macquarie)
Past seminars (webpages include talk notes and videos of lectures)
USyd learning seminar on Deligne-Lusztig theory (Feb - May 2025)
USyd reading course on Kazhdan--Lusztig equivalences (Aug - Oct 2024)
University of Melbourne graduate course on Hodge theory and applications in algebraic geometry (via Zoom), Lecturer: Dougal Davis (Aug 2024)
UNSW/USyd learning seminar on tensor categories and their modules (Feb - June 2024)
SMRI seminar on D-modules, Lecturers: Dragan Milicic and Geodie Williamson (Aug - Nov 2023)
SMRI course on Modular Representation Theory, Lecturers: Chris Hone and Geordie Williamson (Feb - May 2023)
SMRI course on Langlands Correspondence and Bezrukavnikov's equivalence, Lecturer: Geordie Williamson (2019-2020)